CHICAGO -- Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein said Tuesday he will need more revenue streams if he is to make the Cubs a consistent contender, echoing what chairman Tom Ricketts said the previous day.
Ricketts said that with the increased revenue that would come with a major overhaul of Wrigley Field -- framework for a $500 million renovation was agreed to by the Cubs and City of Chicago this week -- the Cubs will win a World Series.
"A lot of this depends on what happens going forward," Epstein said. "The TV deal, the renovations and some other factors. (The Cubs business executives) share their projections with us based on different places we might be.
"We need revenues to increase in order for us to execute our baseball plan. We expect them to (increase). We have a lot of people on the business side working hard for that. We are not where we want to be right now in terms of payroll. It has gone down. As we move forward with our baseball plan it will eventually move up."
In the meantime, Epstein and his people are trying to speed up the time frame of winning by signing the best young talent in the U.S and abroad.
"“That (revenue streams ) won't in of itself be the determining factor in our success," he said. "We need to generate a stream of young talent through our farm system. We want to compliment that with some aggression in free agency."
Epstein is working on putting together the best young scouts and development plan in preparation for the championship caliber organization he expects to be heading the next ten years.
"We are doing the absolute best job we can," he said. "You ask how important are the revenues to increase our payroll. They are really important . We are not where we want to be right now from a revenue standpoint and therefore we are not where we want to be from a payroll standpoint."